''Ernest Scared Stupid'' (a.k.a. "Ernest Saves Halloween") is a 1991 American comedy film directed by John R. Cherry III and starring Jim Varney. It's the fourth (technically fifth) film to feature the character Film/ErnestPWorrell.

In 19th century Briarville, Missouri, Trantor the troll has been on a rampage, turning children into wooden dolls so that he can feast upon their energy. The townspeople, using a little girl as bait, lure the troll into a trap, tie him up in burlap and throw him into a pit. The village elder, Phineas Worrell, [[SealedEvilInACan seals the troll beneath an oak tree]] so that it will never terrorize the children of Briarville again.

Fast-forward to the 1990s, where Phineas Worrell's descendant, Ernest, is a garbageman and friend to the neighborhood children, Kenny, Elizabeth and Joey. The kids are busy working on a haunted house, until it gets destroyed by a couple of bullies. Ernest steps in to help them build a treehouse instead. And of course, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero which tree does he decide]] [[IdiotBall would be the best choice]]?

The film also features Eartha Kitt as Old Lady Hackmore, the creepy old witchy lady who lives near the tree.

----!!Tropes:

* AbsenteeActor: After appearing in ''Goes to Camp,'' ''Saves Christmas,'' and ''Goes to Jail,'' Gailard Sartain sits this one out. His character, Chuck, is [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replaced by the very similar Tom]].* AdultsAreUseless: Except for Old Lady Hackmore; Ernest at least tries to be useful, [[spoiler: and he is in the end]].** Though telling [[TheDitz Ernest]] [[spoiler:the exact steps required to free Trantor]] qualifies her for the IdiotBall.*** Played straight with the rest of the adults, even when they learned of the troll's existence.* AdultFear: No one takes Ernest's claims of a troll seriously, but parents are in a positive panic when their kids suddenly start disappearing without a trace. It gets worse once they realize Ernest was right.* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Trantor is an evil troll who goes after children, turning them into little wooden dolls which give him his power, which he uses to try to create more trolls. He also has the ability to mimic the voice of anyone he's turned into a doll. Younger trolls can be killed by milk (mother's care) and older ones be driven off, but for the most powerful trolls, the only thing that can defeat them is [[spoiler:unconditional love (the heart of a child)]].* AssholeVictim: Non-fatal example (it is a kid's movie, after all): [[spoiler: One of the Murdock brothers gets turned into the last doll Trantor needs to revive his fellow trolls.]]* BedmateReveal: [[spoiler: After checking under the bed and being relieved that nothing's hiding under there, Elizabeth finds Trantor laying in bed next to her.]]* BrokenAesop: Using unconditional love as a weapon...yeah...* TheBully: The Murdocks.* CareBearStare: [[spoiler: Ernest is able to defeat Trantor using unconditional love.]]* CassandraTruth: Nobody believes Ernest or the kids about the troll except for Old Lady Hackmore.* ChekhovsGun: During the first attack in the treehouse, Ernest accidentally spills some milk during the struggle - causing Trantor to flee. Trantor's aversion to milk is hinted a couple more times before the reveal.* TheChick: Elizabeth.* ChildEater: Trantor* {{Corpsing}}: The little girl at the beginning of the movie who is being chased by Trantor.* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Ernest may be a goofy ManChild, but he by far handles Trantor and the other trolls the best - more so than the other adults.* {{Determinator}}: According to Ernest's fourth grade teacher.-->"He never knew when to quit." ''([[DopeSlap smack]])''* EvilDetectingDog: Rimshot.* FriendToAllChildren: Ernest.* FunnySchizophrenia: Kenny accuses Ernest of this whenever he launches into multiple costume-changes while describing the art of war.--> Kenny: You're a great bunch of guys. * HalloweenSpecial* HamToHamCombat: Ernest vs Hackmore gives us a good dose of this.* HeroesLoveDogs: Ernest* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Trantor cursed the Worrell family to become dumber with each generation, possibly trying to create one dumb enough to free him. By the present, Ernest is basically a ManChild. And it's this child-like innocence that allows him to kill Trantor once and for all. * HomeMadeInventions: Ernest has an attachment on his garbage truck which dumps wet sponges held by robot hands repeatedly. We don't get to see what it actually does, though. He likely invented the food-launching cannons in the tree-house, and he also built a troll trap using a dumpster. * HyperspaceWardrobe: Whenever Ernest does his impressions.** Doubles with ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction, as the changes are usually one after another in rapid succession, which is taken UpToEleven when he has a number of double-takes as different characters ''to the same event''.* IdiotBall:** Old Lady Hackmore told Ernest, the only one who ''could'' release Trantor, the exact steps to do so and expected him not to do it.** Ernest demonstrated the required ritual, on the required tree, to the kids.** Neither one of them were able to guess "Milk' from "M-I-something-K."* IdenticalGrandson: Ernest looks much like his ancestor, Phineas Worrell. Jim Varney played both.* IHaveAFamily: When Ernest imitates a doll voice and wrestles with the dilemma of using a doll to stop the gears of a garbage masher.-->Ernest: (as the doll) No, no, don't stick my head in those gears!-->Ernest: (as himself) But it's either me or you.-->Ernest: (as the doll) But I have a family in a doll house.-->Ernest: (as himself - {{Beat}}) I'll send them a nice photo.-->Ernest: (as the doll) You can't get away with this, Ernest, I know where you live!* IHaveTheHighGround: Repeated constantly, first as Ernest's strategy to help Kenny beat his bullies, then as a tactic to beat the incoming troll army. * ItsPersonal: Even though he has his own goal of reviving the other trolls by sacrificing five kids, Trantor also wants to kill Ernest and avenge himself against the Worrell family for imprisoning him. [[spoiler: Then he turns Rimshot into a wooden doll and Ernest in turn gets '''''pissed'''''.]]* KickTheDog: Trantor [[spoiler: turning Rimshot into a wooden statue.]]* KnightOfCerebus: Trantor* LargeHam: You can always expect Ernest to bring the goods, but Old Lady Hackmore is wonderfully hammy as well (which is certainly no surprise if you're familiar with Eartha Kitt).* MagicalSeventhSon: Old Lady Hackmore says "you're the seventh son of the seventh son" when listing all the auspices that make Ernest TheChosenOne for fulfilling his ancestor's legacy and defeating Trantor the Troll once and for all. (It's not clear if she's being metaphorical or not, though, especially since she refers to him as ''the'' direct descendant of Phineas Worrell.)* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: Old Lady Hackmore, to a degree.* MoodSwinger: The girl arguing with her mother about the ridiculous Halloween costume that she herself picked out: tempers flare and harsh words are exchanged, almost immediately followed by the two exchanging apologies and hugging.** This brief moment also counts as an OutOfGenreExperience.** If it weren't for the fact that the scene is used for Old Lady Hackmore to figure out how to defeat the troll then that scene could have come off as a BigLippedAlligatorMoment.* NailsOnABlackboard: A young Ernest does this in a flashback before getting whacked in the head by his teacher. * NiceJobBreakingItHero: Ernest does exactly what Old Lady Hackmore says ''not'' to do and awakens Trantor. One could argue that Hackmore should be responsible for "breaking" it because she actually [[WhatAnIdiot ''told'']] Ernest how to awaken Trantor, and then expected him not to do it.* NotNowKiddo: Kenny gets this a lot from his father. And given his child-like nature, even Ernest gets this treatment from the other adults.* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Ernest sees what Trantor did to [[spoiler:Rimshot]]. Probably the angriest Ernest ever got.-->"Somebody with a runny nose is gonna die!"* OneOfTheKids: Ernest, who is always hanging out with the neighborhood kids. Even other adults treat him like a kid, and no one listens to him about Trantor.* PackedHero: Ernest manages to get himself stuck inside his garbage truck and compacted into a trash box.* PreAssKickingOneLiner--> '''Ernest''': How 'bout a [[CarFu bumper sandwich]], booger lips?* PrecisionFStrike: When Ernest seemingly has Trantor trapped in his garbage truck, he brings it to Kenny's dad, only to go into his usual pseudo bragging rights for capturing it, prompting Kenny's dad to shout, "Just open the damn thing, Ernest!" This seems to be the only time a swear word that has ever been heard in any Ernest title.* PoliceAreUseless: Kenny's dad isn't really that much help, even after learning that Trantor really does exist.* TheRedStapler: "Authentic Bulgarian Miak," which Ernest mistakenly thinks is Trantor's weakness. It was made up for the film, but many people believed that it was a real product.* [[SealedEvilInACan Sealed Evil in a Tree]]* ShoutOut: A passing milk truck, a carton of chocolate milk Ernest drinks at the convenience store, and the milk cartons used by the kids in the climax are all branded "Purity," Which was the local dairy farm brand Ernest used to advertise in his commercial days. * SuperPersistentPredator: Trantor going after Kenny and Elizabeth. He gives up his first pursuit to grab a passer-by, but resumes pursuing the two later despite all sorts of other kids in the neighbor and him being on a strict deadline. He really goes out of his way pursuing Kenny (and only gives up after being scared off by a milk truck). Perhaps he is just that sadistic, [[spoiler:as evidenced by him turning Kenny to wood ''after'' achieving his goals]].* StockFootage: The opening features clips from old black-and-white movies, including ''Film/TheScreamingSkull'', ''Film/TheGiantGilaMonster'', ''Film/TheKillerShrews'' and ''Film/TheLittleShopOfHorrors''.* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Tom for Chuck from the previous Ernest films.* TakenForGranite: Trantor turns children [[spoiler: and dogs, it would seem]] into wooden statues.* TeamPet: Rimshot.* TooDumbToLive: The Murdock brother [[spoiler: who gets turned into a doll by Trantor]] sees the troll and decides it's smart to insult his "costume."** In fairness he honestly thought it was a costume.* TownWithADarkSecret* ThePackRat: Ernest is all too happy to use his junk to build a tree house for the kids.--> Ernest: C'mon fellas, I've been collectin' this stuff for years!* VoiceChangeling: Trantor has this ability, using it to mimic both [[spoiler:Ernest]] and [[spoiler:Elizabeth]] at different points.* TheVoiceless: Bobby, as usual, except for one line: [[spoiler: "Plus tax."]]* TheWallsAreClosingIn: When Ernest gets stuck in the back of his own garbage truck.* WeaksauceWeakness: Milk.** And not "miak."*** He didn't even get to use it yet.* WhenTreesAttack: The book which describes Trantor's goals and weaknesses is titled "Trolls and Other Tree Devils." This helps explain why Trantor's "children" grow from seed pods and why he transforms children into wood, but raises a big question mark over Phineas Worrell's decision to seal him under an ''oak tree'' (which he transforms from his prison into his base of operations).----